Chapter 99
Chapter 99
Compared with Dingtian Sword Sect, the Dao Sect was more illustrious and far grander.
Outside its mountain gates stood the largest city in the Eastern Continent.
The city even had an ostentatious name: Central City.
Zhu Yin’s party attracted little attention dressed as they were in Central City.
She saw members of the demon race openly displaying their identities, while ghost cultivators wreathed in eerie energy were hardly rare.
The Dao Sect possessed enough confidence to have no fear that any outsiders would dare cause trouble on its territory.
Zhu Yin sat in a celebrated restaurant in Central City. While waiting for her food, she reflected that the Dao Sect and Dingtian Sword Sect, two renowned cultivation sects, certainly had different styles.
“Your dishes, honored guest.” The waiter showed no reaction to her strange attire and did not so much as glance at Heipao and the others.
Restaurants had always been places for gossip, and Central City was no exception.
Yet unlike Dingtian Sword Sect, where most people had discussed her young disciple, the Dao Sect seemed to produce far too much gossip.
“The end of the month is coming. Elder Wenjian should be releasing a new storybook soon, right? I paid a deposit at Langhuan Pavilion in advance, but I still do not know whether I will get a copy.”
“I hear the Dao Sect recruited several extraordinarily gifted disciples this time. I wonder how many will appear on the Storm Rankings three years from now.”
“I heard Artifact Peak and Medicine Peak caused another scene during the trials. Whenever disciples from those two peaks meet, nothing good ever happens.”
“…”
By the time Zhu Yin finished her meal, she had learned no useful news, but had heard enough gossip to piece together most of the Dao Sect’s internal affairs.
Only while drinking tea afterward did she finally hear her eldest disciple’s name.
“Hey! Remember the new disciple who refused Elder Xingyue of Taibai Peak? I heard he has a mutated single spiritual root. What was that boy’s name again?”
“Of course I remember. Everyone said he was a fool when the news spread. What about him?”
“Latest news: the boy has already reached Foundation Establishment.”
“Seriously? How long has he even been here? Did they not say he came from some tiny place and had barely cultivated before?”
“Exactly. Everyone agreed Xiao Daowei was the best of the new disciples, but now that is difficult to say!”
“…”
It appeared that her eldest disciple was doing well too. As expected of the male lead, Zhu Yin thought.
She drained her tea and rose to leave.
The Dao Sect was enormous.
Enormous.
Enormous.
The sect contained eight thousand eight hundred and eighty-one peaks, with distances between them measured in multiples of roughly fifty kilometers.
New disciples who had not yet learned to fly on swords had to take flying spirit beasts or spirit vessels that passed on fixed schedules merely to attend lessons.
It was much like public transportation in the modern world.
After entering the Dao Sect and extracting a map from the mind of a disciple guarding the mountain, Zhu Yin found the inner disciples’ residential area.
When she located her eldest disciple, the new disciples were attending a lesson.
It was not a cultivation lesson, but a “cultural class” on the history of the cultivation world and the Dao Sect.
Zhu Yin spotted her eldest disciple immediately.
Like her younger disciple, the boy had grown noticeably taller in the months since she last saw him, and his features had matured considerably.
He sat in the front row with his chin propped on one hand, listening to the elder at the front recount the sect’s history. He looked extremely attentive.
Only Zhu Yin, who knew the boy well, could tell at a glance that his thoughts were elsewhere.
She was amused. Neither Yun Lie nor Yun Xi had ever been capable of sitting still as children.
There was no chance he could settle his mind while obediently listening to the old man above drone on like a monk reciting scripture.
Tap!
A white bead struck Yun Lie’s shoulder, neither lightly nor heavily.
He came back to himself and turned.
The one who had thrown it was a young boy. When Yun Lie looked over, the boy waved in a friendly manner and whispered, “Senior Brother Yun Lie, shall we go to the dining hall together after class?”
Yun Lie glanced at him, then at the youth sitting properly beside him, and scoffed.
He called loudly, “Elder Xu! Someone hit me with this and disrupted my studies!”
The shout startled many drowsy disciples awake.
In an instant, every gaze turned toward him.
Then, following the direction Yun Lie pointed, everyone looked at the two people seated at the same desk.
Once they recognized the pair, the other students’ expressions immediately became intrigued and excited.
Zhu Yin was also surprised for a moment. She watched with interest. Her eldest disciple was not one to tattle maliciously, so had those two offended him?
Zhong Xiu, who had thrown the bead, looked utterly bewildered, as if he had never imagined Yun Lie could be this sort of person.
“Who threw it?” Elder Xu demanded sternly.
Zhong Xiu lowered his brows and was about to admit his mistake when a cool, quiet voice sounded beside him. “I did.”
Elder Xu’s expression filled with exasperated disappointment. “Xiao Daowei! Why did you do that?”
The youth lowered his eyes. “I was only playing a joke on our classmate Yun Lie.”
Xiao Daowei?
Zhu Yin’s interest rose. She had heard the name recently. Supposedly, he was considered the most gifted disciple of this year’s intake.
When she first heard the name, she had assumed it belonged to a girl. Now she saw an elegant, aloof young man–unmistakably male.
The little disturbance ended with Xiao Daowei ordered to copy the section of sect history covered that day one hundred times and clean the classroom for ten days.
When the lesson ended, the students left in groups of twos and threes.
Zhong Xiu marched angrily up to Yun Lie. “Senior Brother Yun Lie, I never thought you were this kind of person!”
Yun Lie had clearly waited for them. “Oh? What kind of person am I?”
Zhong Xiu was only a little over ten, the youngest inner disciple. Accustomed to receiving goodwill from his fellow disciples, he had never encountered someone like Yun Lie before.
His face flushed red. “Y-You told the teacher! You are despicable!”
“Zhong Xiu,” Xiao Daowei called. “Come back.”
The little boy trudged back aggrievedly and called him Young Master.
Everyone in the sect knew their relationship. The Zhong family was a cultivation clan subordinate to the Xiao clan of the Eastern Continent. In mortal terms, Xiao Daowei was like a prince, and Zhong Xiu his study companion.
Zhong Xiu had invited Yun Lie to lunch at Xiao Daowei’s instruction.
Xiao Daowei frowned at Yun Lie.
He could not understand. “You did that deliberately. Why do you dislike me?”
Xiao Daowei came from the main branch of the Eastern Continent’s Xiao clan, with a noble background and exceptional talent.
He was not arrogant or overbearing and willingly maintained good relations with his classmates.
Yun Lie was extraordinarily talented and cultivated diligently. Xiao Daowei had always admired people like him.
Yet Yun Lie treated everyone else kindly and was, for some unknown reason, extremely cold toward him.
That day, he had asked Zhong Xiu to invite Yun Lie to lunch so he could have a proper conversation with his classmate.
Unexpectedly, Yun Lie disliked him even more than he had thought. Despite clearly seeing who had given the instruction, Yun Lie had deliberately shouted aloud.
Xiao Daowei could not allow a ten-year-old child to be punished in his place, so he stepped forward and admitted responsibility.
Yun Lie snorted, too lazy to respond. After gathering his belongings, he turned and left.
Outsiders’ guesses that their poor relationship arose from rivalry were complete nonsense.
It was simply because of what had happened on the day Yun Lie rejected Elder Xingyue and declared that he already had a master.
When he returned to his residence, he heard someone speaking next door.
A certain scion of a great clan had said in a cool, detached voice:
“…Merely a Foundation Establishment cultivator from a remote backwater. How could someone like that deserve to be his master?”
Yun Lie had borne a grudge ever since!